Chase-LivingSocial Partnerships Benefit Small Businesses

Written by Alisson Andrade

Monday, 14 May 2012 12:25

Chase and LivingSocial have joined forces to raise awareness on the importance of small businesses to local communities, and to help small businesses succeed. To accomplish this goal, LivingSocial, known for offering members valuable deals from local merchants, and Chase, a provider of small businesses services and support, have come together to launch the “Mission: Small Business” program and LivingSocial Rewards Visa Card, two separate initiatives.

The Mission : Small Business program aims to help up to 12 small businesses grow within local communities through $250,000 grants. Eligible small businesses that wish to partake in the program must complete the program’s registration process and gather votes from at least 250 supporters. Each vote, which is submitted via Facebook, not only helps the small business be considered for a grant, but also determines the number of grants that will be distributed (up to 12). How so? Every vote is equivalent to a minimum of $5 that Chase will contribute to the grant. Therefore, the more votes are submitted, the more funds will be available in the grant pool (up $3 million), and more grant recipients can receive $250,000 each. Grant recipients will also meet with LivingSocial’s sales team to design a LivingSocial promotion for the recipient’s business. This partnership is designed to publicize the small business and give it a boost in sales.

The new LivingSocial Rewards Visa Card allows card holders to earn five points for every dollar spent on LivingSocial purchases, three points for every dollar spent on dining and one point for every dollar spent on all other purchases. As an added incentive, during the first year of card membership customers will receive 10 “Deal Bucks” for every 10 purchases made each billing cycle. The benefits aren’t just for card holders, though; the greater rewards for LivingSocial purchases should help drive more sales to local merchants. Those interested can learn more about the card or apply through the LivingSocial site.

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Living Social Card
This is not the first time Chase has partnered with another company to support and help small businesses. Chase has also partnered with Google to provide small businesses exclusive “Grow Your Business Online” seminars and webinars, as well as offer Ink from Chase card holders $100 for Google Adwords. (To read more about the “Grow Your Business Online” seminars and webinars, you can read a previous blog post about this topic called “A Look Inside Chase’s Grow Your Business Online Webinars.”)